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Singapore Toy, Games & Comic Convention 2012 (Day 1)

Come and go, one of the most anticipated event of the year has finally come to pass last week. With thanks to the invitation from STGCC this year, I was able to join as a media representative to cover the event. I know what you guys are thinking , you must be thinking " oh cool free entrance and free everything". That may be true but it also meant no time to sleep ! For someone as lazy me, it was so difficult to be at the venue by 10:30 everyday ! Friday to Sunday! But that said, it was probably one of the best event I've had the chance to be involved in and it was a very fun weekend !

I had to be there before 10:30 because I was interviewing Tadaaki Jacky Dosai at 10:30am . And boy was the guy punctual! The interview session started right on time! The interview went on for near 45mins before we begrudgingly ( we wanted to stay!) excused ourselves. Had to prepare myself for my next interview with Itou Noizi!!!

In case you don't know, Itou Noizi is the character designer for many popular titles such as Shakugan no Shana, Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi and many more.

I realllllyyyyyy don't like to cosplay at events if I'm covering the event because it’s reallllllyyy inconvenient. But because it's Itou-sensei, I decided on Friday afternoon that yes, I would cosplay Shana to interview her !

And I spent the entire Friday night getting my costume ready, cutting my new wig and losing sleep over it.

Anyway I digressed.

After Jacky's interview we rushed to Reiko's hotel room and I changed into Shana. Then rushed back down to the event for the interview. And ended up being late oTL Can you imagine my embarrassment when I walked into the super packed room with my flamboyant red hair =_=?

Unfortunately for me ,Itou sensei has a strict 'no photography' policy and I couldn't get any photos with her. Which really crushed me because it defeated the whole point of dressing up as Shana for the interview (which also caused me to be late *palms* ). But mweh, I hope she was happy to at least see someone cosplay the character she designed. ><!

Itou sensei was very cute and accommodating. After the interview session everyone asked for her signature xD Thankfully she obliged otherwise I might just hug her leg and bawl or something. She was even nice enough to dedicate the sign to my name *melts*. Yes,I'm a happy fan girl. I'll talk more about the interview in a separate post so look forward to that!

After that I sped back to the hotel room and changed out. I really couldn't stand walking around with that long of a wig.

Managed to do a super short photo-shoot with Brian in the hotel room though….

A bit of camwhore nonsense with Cvy and Xiaobai before I ditched my costume & wig. Look at the two of them bombing each other hahahha xD

The first cosplayer I shot because reiko was so excited to see him. Apparently he was cosplaying as a Kamen Rider, well, the rider before he henshin into a Kamen Rider.

A photo of the magical moment when you spot someone cosplaying as a character you like and when someone recognise the character you were cosplaying and gush over the mutual fandom.

I was telling Reiko, this magical feeling never gets old. I’ve been to countless events and seen countless cosplayers but I still gush and squeal when I see a character I like. Especially when it’s a series I least expected. I guess that’s what makes going to a convention worthwhile eh =) ?

The booths were pretty exciting as not only were there a few gaming section there was also the Avengers and Batman Hot toys exhibits!

AVENGERS DISPLAY >.<!!!!!!! The Hot Toys figurines were so alarmingly realistic and you got to love how they set this particular display up. 7 against 1 seems a bit unrighteous but well, Loki deserves it. GO CAP!! *gets bashed by Loki fangirls xD*

The booth was too crowded for any better shot, not to mention the reflections from the glass were really hard to avoid.

Harry Potter movie posters on display! I kind of cannot remember which booth this is though x_x. After a bit of roaming, it was time for Itou-Sensei’s stage session!

Itou-sensei did a live sketch and inking of an original character on stage. I was going to film and upload a speed up version of it but the staff were quick to stop me =(

Here’s the crowd captivated by Itou-sensei’s live drawing xD!

A sketch of Shana on display! I kinda missed this display booth though =\ Photo taken by Brian.

With Jason from Neo Tokyo Project. He was cosplaying as Tyreal from Diablo 3 and yes, I couldn’t resist taking a camwhore with a faceless man xD

One of the awesome thing about STGCC is their Walk of Fame and Photo Booth feature/activity. I love how easy they make it for the fans to meet and interact with their guests. This is the queue to meet and take a photo with Touya Hibiki and Kousaka Yun. Yes, it’s scary and never ending!!

More roaming around and then we met the uber awesome Jacky-san! We pounced on the chance to ask him even more questions about Cosplay and this guy never fails to give an amazingly insightful, interesting and brutally honest answer!

And he was so nice he even gave us a box of Sakura+ Mocha KitKat each! This is the first time a guest gave me a present! I guess this is just a great representation of his personality; hospitable, friendly and just like a big brother.

The Artist alley!

The pretty babes at the Dragon Nest booth! Yes, everyone gets a chance to take a photo with them ;DD

And here’s our very own Gundam Cosplayer Clive, working at the SD Gundam Capsule Fighter booth. Again, anyone is free to take a picture with them during their stage appearance. I’m sure Clive wowed many event attendees with his gundam that day because I was in the crowd and they were all praising it.

I really like how STGCC and the booth companies bothered to set up so much activities for the event attendees to take part in. An exhibition sort of event is good but if there is no activities for the attendees to do, it gets dry after a while and there’s no sense of participation at all.

And my favourite booth activity in STGCC was drinking Fantas from the Fanta booth =X *gets bashed again*. You know how amazing it was to be dragging your tired feet at a crowded convention when someone suddenly presents you with an awesome cup of COLD FIZZY DRINK?

It’s mad awesome and whenever the promoters appeared in front of Reiko and I, we would make sure we shamelessly grab a cup =x

Tristan Eaton’s booth! As you might have noticed from the interview entry, he kind of just started working on this mural on Friday but by Saturday afternoon it was already completed! This is called skill and talents xD

After the slightly embarrassing end at the Media Preview/ interview with him, I made sure I kept my distance from the booth because I just felt a little too embarrassed *hides*

I had bought 2 souvenirs for Touya Hibiki and Kousaka Yun which I stupidly forgot to bring to the Media Preview so I tried to find a chance to pass it to them on Saturday. It’s a pair of Indian Teddy Bears in their traditional Wedding garbs, bought from Sentosa xD I forgot to take a picture of the bears T_T

I look fat beside them yes I know. The two of them were so down-to-earth it took me by surprise! I guess it helps that Reiko met them in Japan before but still xD I was especially surprised at Touya Hibiki’s amiability. I was expecting her to be cool, aloof or maybe awkward but she was none of those! Turns out she is funny, direct and looks straight into your eyes when you talk D:!

Since I couldn’t speak Japanese, the only form of communication was Reiko (awesome translator, someone go hire her for your next event please!) and a common fandom. I did something I didn’t expect myself to do, I told Yun I like Puella Magi Madoka Magica too and that I cosplayed Homura Akemi before. I say it’s unlike me to say things like that cause it felt like I was trying to promote myself and that’s embarrassing *hides*.

I admit, I was expecting her to just nod her head sagely and smile patronisingly while continuing to talk a little about the series. Instead she jumped over to me immediately and asked me to show her my cosplay photo! OMG! Thank god I wasn’t lying! Otherwise it’d be like getting trapped and caught red handed xD

I don't have the habit of storing and categorising my Cosplay photos for showcase in my phone so I was a bit more than unprepared. Thankfully I did save some and showed her what I felt wasn’t very impressive ones.

I really wanted to show them the light painting photo but God forbids as I realise. . . I didn’t save it on my phone at all! Then I saw Brian walking into the room and immediately commanded him to show them the picture.

He went on to show them the photos he took of Jason’s Tyreal (Diablo 3). As you can see from this Photographer’s grinning face, they were more than a little impressed xD. Brian, if they invite you to a photoshoot the next time they visit Singapore, PLEASE LET ME HELP THEM SAIKANG OGAYZ?????

Lego towns on display !! The organisers actually placed a few surprises inside the display for attendees to sieve out but I got a headache and gave up without even trying xD

Initially , I thought one of the towns was Hogwarts or something. Then I noticed the Storm troopers and was like hmmm… can anyone tell me what is the theme of the Lego display? Star Wars universe?

A mix of eastern and Western figurines.

Yusuke from Yuyu Hakusho! One of the first Manga I’ve ever read!

One day… I will cosplay kurama! One day >.<! Argh, I need to finish reading the manga first =(

The event ended with a DJ showdown between ZANEED & MONOMIND. The crowd were surprsingly excited since Singaproeans are not known to be good audience xD There were a lot of TouHou cosplayers and a lot of people came prepared with light Sticks!

Yes, I believe he is a guy xD

Reiko was a bit disappointed that the DJ Battle were more like remixing of Vocaloid and Touhou songs. Maybe next year the two groups can gate-crash each other’s mixing and like, mix touhou songs with Vocaloid songs That would make things unexpected and interesting for the fans

I decided to cut myself some slack and leave the Cosplay photography to Brian instead. Henceforth I ended up with very little Cosplay photos in my camera.

Hi Kaika! What a great detailed write-up about the event.I must say that I was a tad disappointed that this year didn't have as many timed events as last year and they missed out on DC comics! overall I did get to see artists at work and got myself some lovely prints and artwork. I did have a nice time! just felt that last year was better!